> About The Authors

Thomas Kochman and Jean Mavrelis have been diversity trainers for over 20 years, helping major companies better understand their increasingly diverse workforce.

As founders of Kochman Mavrelis Associates, Thomas and Jean focus on communication styles, social experiences and cultural values that shape behavior for different groups of people. They are authors of Corporate Tribalism.

These statements speak to a hallmark and feature of U.S. culture, not only “individual freedom” but also “primary control”, which is shaping the environment to accommodate oneself, as opposed to “secondary control”, shaping oneself to accommodate the environment.

This view has many corollaries. One is that within the U.S. individuals don’t have to accept the givens.

If God, fate or society has dealt you a hand that you don’t like, it’s very mainstream U.S. to say, “I want a new deal,” as opposed to, “I need to learn to manage these cards as best that I can.”

Mainstream U.S. folks tend to look at difficulties as “problems to be solved,” as opposed to “situations to be accepted.”

This cultural difference also leads to different sets of expectations on how individual and social problems should be addressed. Read more »